Friday, February 25, 2011

EKB Capsule News...West Virginia...2-26-'11

After three days of trial and more than 4 hours of deliberation, Friday, a jury found 51 year old Clayton "Gino" Rogers guilty of first-degree murder charges in the August 2010 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend, 25 year old Laura Amos who was found dead in an abandoned house in St. Albans. The jury granted him life with no mercy. A formal sentencing will be set within the next ten days.

Donald Good, the man accused of the 1987 Huntington Mall rapes was in court Friday when his attorney, John Laishley, filed several motions aimed at suppressing DNA and other evidence. Laishley says his client is still very skeptical of the evidence saying too many things have been lost, mishandled and misplaced in this case creating significant doubt about it's integrity and credibility. If the defense is successful in getting the evidence suppressed, the case would be tossed out. Ahearing on the motions has been scheduled for March 11th.

Michael Curtis was arrested Thursday and charged with failing to register as a sex offender after he went to the South Charleston detachment saying he needed to register his address, but investigators found he hadn't kept his records up to date. Curtis was convicted in July 1990 of raping a 7 year old family member in Ohio. Curtis is also charged with malicious wounding after police say he stabbed Bobby Simmons in the stomach several times after a fight over money on the west side of Charleston. Curtis pleaded not guilty and is expected to go to trial in May.

Nearly 400 Frontier Communications customers along Route 10, along Fish Pond Road near the intersection of Route 10, and Route 37 were without telephone service Friday morning because of the theft of about 600 feet of telephone cable in Lincoln County. Dennis Bloss, area general manager for Frontier Communications, says he hopes service will be restored by Saturday afternoon.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia announced Friday its Buffalo plant soon will expand its production capacity of six-speed automatic trasmission from 270,000 to 390,000 units. The $64 million investment will mean 40 more well-paying jobs. When the new production line starts operations, the Putnam County plant will employ more than 1,100 people. The company says it expects to start production by late next year.

Acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's plan to reduce the state food tax three cents to two cents appears dead for this legislative session. A pair of bills in the House of Delegates and state Senate didn't make it out of committee by Friday and would now need rules suspensions to pass. The proposal would cost the state about $25 million in revenue. House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, says House Republicans were ready to offer amendments to eliminate the entire tax, $75 million, but the measure didn't make it out of the Finance Committee Friday, even though it was on the agenda. Armstead says a gradual reduction the House leadership was interested in makes less sense with the decision Thursday by the Finance Committee to approve a $70 million state worker pay raise bill.